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I've cut perspex with a table saw, drop saw, bandsaw and router. It machines pretty well as long as it's a bit thick. 6mm is a good thickness. I don't think you'll have any trouble with the router. I'd only be concerned if the perspex is old, cracked stuff.

Cool. It's new stuff. Some is for the house, some is (possibly) for Arawana.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I first joined WBF they made me write a book to prove I was a real yachty. I was so gullible.PaperbackE-book

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by MattSplatt

Curved in section? Both faces, or only one?
I could easily build up the blade and reshape it if the rest of it is suitable.

Sorry Matt outside rebuilding Gardeners today . The oar is a skookum steering older style timber sweep with a flat blade and just short of your mast height , it does have a Kevlar collar and slight bend from some previous incident but there is plenty of length to work with. Best thing is the stainless oar collar which will adapt perfectly to Pixie.

Sorry Matt outside rebuilding Gardeners today . The oar is a skookum steering older style timber sweep with a flat blade and just short of your mast height , it does have a Kevlar collar and slight bend from some previous incident but there is plenty of length to work with. Best thing is the stainless oar collar which will adapt perfectly to Pixie.

You have a Gardner? It should be in a shed. Or a boat. I didn't buy the one I was looking at. Went for about $700

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

At a classic boat meeting a couple of nights ago we had great guest speaker talking about the Americas cup. ( The actual cup , not the event so much) Hamish Ross. I met Hamish a few decades ago through classic racing and he went on to have quite the legal career specialising in Americas cup stuff for various teams.
Pretty lucky really , they brought the cup in and sat it up front for us to look at for a couple of hours( no touchy).

There were several made at the time by Garrard as generic trophies in the classic water jug form, one picked out to be the trophy for a boat race.

All quite interesting ,beaten out of one sheet of silver and how light it was in places( dangerously light), the additional bases made for engraving, the destruction and rebuild after it was attacked.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

I can understand you getting exited about the Gardner engine $700 would have to be below scrap metal value ,but then again a rebuild would set you back quite a few large bills.

[IMG][/IMG]

I did think about that. But but scrap steel is only fetching about 20c a kg. I couldn't do that to such a lovely piece of art anyway. I'm more excited about my old boat being for sale. I suggested to Felicity we should buy it, then sell my cars and machines over the next 3 or 4 years and go sailing. Henry will be through Uni by then, shackles off, free to go. She didn't say yes immediately. I don't understand her sometimes.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by Phil Y

............. I'm more excited about my old boat being for sale. I suggested to Felicity we should buy it, then sell my cars and machines over the next 3 or 4 years and go sailing. Henry will be through Uni by then, shackles off, free to go. She didn't say yes immediately. I don't understand her sometimes.

It's certainly a well set up boat - looks like a real climb-on/sail-off proposition. Very comprehensive inventory.
However, I've never been able to get excited about bilge keel yachts. Always seemed more like a motor-sailer than a yacht.
Could be because my sole experience of sailing a bilge keeler was a very long time ago in a trailer sailer of about 19-20' (Hunter?) - and was at a time when I was sailing 12' skiffs and only speed mattered.
In my current more senior age I can accept that motor-sailing when you didnt feel like drifting or slogging to windward might be a nice option to have.
But how is it different to what you have now?

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by Phil Y

I did think about that. But but scrap steel is only fetching about 20c a kg. I couldn't do that to such a lovely piece of art anyway. I'm more excited about my old boat being for sale. I suggested to Felicity we should buy it, then sell my cars and machines over the next 3 or 4 years and go sailing. Henry will be through Uni by then, shackles off, free to go. She didn't say yes immediately. I don't understand her sometimes.

What about Balia , she's an offshore boat.
The problem with cruising the islands is you become unsettled , want to change everything and carry on doing it , so I've heard.

did I miss a link to the 'old boat' for sale listing? edit :yes I did. found it.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Island time.

I watched one of these guys videos after seeing it on Dylans SA thread, and then I spotted they are in places we visited last year.
Like this one from about 3.15 on

Amazing little island but open to the North and west, so pretty rolly. But so nice we stayed 3 days I think, got the flopper stopper over and put up with it.
All that Mamanuca and Yasawa chain is like that come to think about it.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by Phil Y

I'm more excited about my old boat being for sale. I suggested to Felicity we should buy it, then sell my cars and machines over the next 3 or 4 years and go sailing. Henry will be through Uni by then, shackles off, free to go. She didn't say yes immediately. I don't understand her sometimes.

You are one lucky dude ,I was staring down the barrel of divorce proceedings when I mentioned buying another boat on Monday.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Why would I go back to the big steel boat? Yes Balia is a very capable offshore boat. She will pretty much take whatever is thrown at her. Basically the same rig as Vulcan, cutter ketch. And indeed, when I bought Balia, I thought, pretty similar to Vulcan but wood. Great. We like Balia a lot and she will do everything we need. But we do miss Vulcan, and she will do everything we need a bit better. Vulcan was very, very well set up for short handed sailing. Everything led to 2 electric winches, either side of the helm. I always feel like Balia is slightly under canvassed, like sailing with one reef in. Vulcan, surprisingly for a bilge keeled steel boat, had a really good rig and sails. A tall and fairly light mast, though plenty stout for cruising. Dutchman flaking, 2 Profurls. Needed a new mizzen sail, but otherwise very good in the sail department and well set up. And as a liveaboard, just a better proposition. More room, better facilities. Not as nice, in terms of the fitout and ambience. Basically lots of thin ply and teak trim covering up hard steel. But way more practical. We lived aboard very comfortably for 2 years in PNG, me, Felicity, 2 kids the first year plus a baby the second year. He learned to walk on the boat. Absolutely huge storage. Inside and outside helm. Strong, high stainless post and rail fence right around. Full sized domestic gas stove and an upright fridge (dont open the door on port tack) as well as a chest freezer. Proper stand up hot shower. Lots of other details that just make her a more suitable long term cruising boat. I dont actually see us buying Vulcan, but one can surely daydream, and it certainly is nice to have a partner who shares those dreams.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by Phil Y

Why would I go back to the big steel boat? Yes Balia is a very capable offshore boat. She will pretty much take whatever is thrown at her. Basically the same rig as Vulcan, cutter ketch. And indeed, when I bought Balia, I thought, pretty similar to Vulcan but wood. Great. We like Balia a lot and she will do everything we need. But we do miss Vulcan, and she will do everything we need a bit better. Vulcan was very, very well set up for short handed sailing. Everything led to 2 electric winches, either side of the helm. I always feel like Balia is slightly under canvassed, like sailing with one reef in. Vulcan, surprisingly for a bilge keeled steel boat, had a really good rig and sails. A tall and fairly light mast, though plenty stout for cruising. Dutchman flaking, 2 Profurls. Needed a new mizzen sail, but otherwise very good in the sail department and well set up. And as a liveaboard, just a better proposition. More room, better facilities. Not as nice, in terms of the fitout and ambience. Basically lots of thin ply and teak trim covering up hard steel. But way more practical. We lived aboard very comfortably for 2 years in PNG, me, Felicity, 2 kids the first year plus a baby the second year. He learned to walk on the boat. Absolutely huge storage. Inside and outside helm. Strong, high stainless post and rail fence right around. Full sized domestic gas stove and an upright fridge (dont open the door on port tack) as well as a chest freezer. Proper stand up hot shower. Lots of other details that just make her a more suitable long term cruising boat. I dont actually see us buying Vulcan, but one can surely daydream, and it certainly is nice to have a partner who shares those dreams.

Vulcan is a very impressive and capable looking boat however the seller is not even divulgin her age. I believe for an older? steel yacht with bilge keels the asking price is way to high.
You as a former owner would have to be aware of her history was she built overseas or locally. My main concern would be the quality of steel used and present condition if she was built in Australia or by an owner builder, which is what I seem to be reading.

Interesting bit of history regarding living aboard in NG you ever want to trade and Iím not talking boats let me know.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Very relaxed day at the boat. The main reason for going up was to bring the other half of the dinghy home for a rebirthing....it's what you do when you realize building a new dinghy is not going to happen any time soon. So fix up what you've got.20180809_110638.jpg

Taking the dinghy off exposed the forehatch, the last piece other than the tiller of brightwork on deck. The plan was to sand it back and put a coat of two pack clear poly on it. However try as I might I could not get the lid off one of the tins. So bowing to reality I got the Vinguard out and painted the bloody thing grey. The choices having been narrowed are now all sandstone or the sides red to go with the theme. I shall cogitate upon it.
My berth is cheap because it's close to the bank and I sit on the bottom at low tide but it's getting to the stage where I could antifoul at low tide.20180809_124114.jpg

The definition of stupid has got to be the belief that more guns will negate the bloodshed done with guns.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by auscruisertom

Vulcan is a very impressive and capable looking boat however the seller is not even divulgin her age. I believe for an older? steel yacht with bilge keels the asking price is way to high.
You as a former owner would have to be aware of her history was she built overseas or locally. My main concern would be the quality of steel used and present condition if she was built in Australia or by an owner builder, which is what I seem to be reading.

Interesting bit of history regarding living aboard in NG you ever want to trade and I’m not talking boats let me know.

Yeah shes way overpriced. Built in Australia, Brisbane I think, but not sure, in 1987. The build quality is good. She had some rust internally way down in the lowest part of the keel, but still plenty of steel there. I think that might have been cut out and replated since then. And rust under the capping rail around the deck. Otherwise all clean. We bought her, what, going on 20 years ago now, for $120,000 and sold her a few years later for $115,000. It was a very good arrangement because housing in Port Moresby is extremely expensive, around $1000 a week rent for an apartment way back then. I was working for a law firm and accommodation was part of the package. I said hey, how about instead of you guys paying rent on an apartment, I buy this boat and sail it up there, and you can make the payments on my boat loan? They said yeah, no worries. 2 years, $1000 a week, worked out pretty well. Sailed her home at the end of my contract.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Of course I knew this was going to happen...

Retrenched at 59 from a nine year Project Management role in Defence, then a hard time doing bits and pieces work for a while, several years of voluntary work on subsistence money, and finally retirement. Less than a month later a recruitment company wants me to apply for a Project Management role in Defence that they are trying to fill. No means NO.

When I first joined WBF they made me write a book to prove I was a real yachty. I was so gullible.PaperbackE-book

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

Originally Posted by brucemoffatt

Of course I knew this was going to happen...

Retrenched at 59 from a nine year Project Management role in Defence, then a hard time doing bits and pieces work for a while, several years of voluntary work on subsistence money, and finally retirement. Less than a month later a recruitment company wants me to apply for a Project Management role in Defence that they are trying to fill. No means NO.

I think you should apply and if you succeed work for a month then cutback to one day a week with medical reasons or whatever.
You may find that extremly satisfying well I certainly am ,going in on a Monday and listening to all the moaning and groaning finishing up my one day and then having six days of.

Re: Antipodean Boats Connection

That's a nice feather in your cap Bruce. Not gone and forgotten, just another victim of the good old valley of death. Certainly having finally got through the pension shenanigans, and got your head around retirement, it would be hard to see the attraction in going back to another defence contract. Great to be asked, and great to be able to happily say, Thanks, but No thanks. Hey, I hope things go well with your visitor this weekend. I may pop down sometime, not sure what our plans are, other than a few sheep pedicures.image.jpg